[ENWorld Book Club] Thoughts for next book selection?

[nikolai]

Hi all;

I've been nominated to select the next book for the book club. I want your help in doing this!

The main aims are to select something that (1) lots of people will read, in order to get (2) some thoughtful discussion. Some discussions have been quite short, so I want something that will inspire lots of people to buy it and read it, and then talk about it.

Previous choice have been: Idlewild, Swordspoint, Anubis Gates, Eragon, Dragondoom, Tigana, and Pattern Recognition.

I'm thinking of two books at the moment:

The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Which is a mystery surrounding a book detective who is hired to authenticte part of the original manuscript of The Three Musketeers, and a manual for summoning the Devil.

Lucas Corso, middle-aged, tired, and cynical, is a book detective, a mercenary hired to hunt down rare editions for wealthy and unscrupulous clients. When a well-known bibliophile is found hanged, leaving behind part of the original manuscript of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers, Corso is brought in to authenticate the fragment.

The task seems straightforward, but the unsuspecting Corso is soon drawn into a swirling plot involving devil worship, occult practices, and swashbuckling derring-do among a cast of characters bearing a suspicious resemblance to those of Dumas's masterpiece. Aided by a mysterious beauty named for a Conan Doyle heroine, Corso travels from Madrid to Toledo to Paris in pursuit of a sinister and seemingly omniscient killer. Part mystery, part puzzle, part witty intertextual game, The Club Dumas is a wholly original intellectual thriller by the internationally bestselling author of The Flanders Panel and The Seville Communion.

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?0679777547

and,

The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Which is a "modern" fairy tale.

Once upon a time came a story so full of high adventure and true love that it became an instant classic and won the hearts of millions. Now in hardcover in America for the first time since 1973 (in its native Florin, it has been on the Florinese Times bestseller list continuously since the week it was published), this special edition of The Princess Bride is a true keepsake for devoted fans as well as those lucky enough to discover it for the first time.

What reader can forget or resist such colorful characters as Westley...handsome farm boy who risks death and much, much worse for the woman he loves; Inigo...the Spanish swordsman who lives only to avenge his father's death; Fezzik...the Turk, the gentlest giant ever to have uprooted a tree with his bare hands; Vizzini...the evil Sicilian, with a mind so keen he's foiled by his own perfect logic; Prince Humperdinck...the eviler ruler of Guilder, who has an equally insatiable thirst for war and the beauteous Buttercup; Count Rugen... the evilest man of all, who thrives on the excruciating pain of others; Miracle Max...the King's ex-Miracle Man, who can raise the dead (kind of); The Dread Pirate Roberts...supreme looter and plunderer of the high seas; and, of course, Buttercup...the princess bride, the most perfect, beautiful woman in the history of the world.

S. Morgenstern's timeless tale--discovered and wonderfully abridged by William Goldman--pits country against country, good against evil, love against hate. From the Cliffs of Insanity through the Fire Swamp and down into the Zoo of Death, this incredible journey and brilliant tale is peppered with strange beasties monstrous and gentle, and memorable surprises both terrible and sublime.

http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/promo/princessbride/

If you've any other suggestions, I love to here them. Basically I need to know whether either of them sound like the sort of stuff lots of you will want to read.

 

[renbot]

Personally I think you should go with the first book, but that may be because everyone I know has read the Princess Bride.

I would recommend the Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells. It is a great book in its own right and she has just started writing sequels to it that are truly fantastic.

On another note...there is an EN bookclub?? How do I find out more?

 

[nikolai]

Thanks for the comment. I'm trying to choose something that is resonably well known, popular and high profile, but not so well known, popular and high profile, that too many people have already read it.

On another note...there is an EN bookclub?? How do I find out more?

The main Book Club thread is here:

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=91597

 

[diaglo]

War and Peace by Tolstoy

 

[Wombat]

War and Peace by Tolstoy

Don't kid, diaglo -- this is one of my favourite books

I love The Princess Bride, and was fearful when the movie was first announced. Book & movie are very different critters, but both stand up well.

The Club Dumas I've heard okay things about, but nothing stellar. I doubt I would pick it up just for the ENWorld bit, but this has been true about many such books on the list.

Actually, there is a point that needs to be addressed with the ENWorld Book Club -- if we are going to do this, really going to do this, we need to make it much more regular as far as timing goes. As it stands on a highly irregular basis a book is quietly suggested, some people see the suggestion, others don't, and the discussion begins some vague time later. What should happen is something like "Every other month we discuss one particular book on the ENWorld boards. The next book up is 'X', with discussions beginning on 'Y'." Such solidity would lead to more and better commentary on the books, I believe.

 

[JoeBlank]

Great points on the scheduling, Wombat. We were on such a schedule, and then our founder stepped down. I'm trying to keep things going, and for the first selection it was suggested that we allow a longer reading period before discussion began. Partially this was to allow for summer schedules, and in the hopes that more peopel would have the time to pick up the book and participate.

The other thing that needs to be done is news posts on the front page. I'll look into this, but I think I just need to send an email or some such to a newshound on a regular basis.

Check the link above, and in my sig, for discussion of the Book Club's format, and please feel free to speak your mind and offer suggestions.

 

[Wombat]

Fair play then, JoeBlank

Assuming a schedule, I shall be glad to participate

 

[diaglo]

Don't kid, diaglo -- this is one of my favourite books .

who's kidding. that's how i got my active imagination to go to sleep at night during middle and high school. finished war and peace and anna karenina, all 8 parts. and many, many more books.

 

[nikolai]

that's how i got my active imagination to go to sleep at night during middle and high school. finished war and peace and anna karenina, all 8 parts. and many, many more books.

I don't think War and Peace would be a good choice. I think it has too much status, is too long, and is too special interest (or off topic, as historical fiction) to be an appropriate choice for a Fantasy & Sci-Fi Books board. I really don't think we'd get very many people reading it, or much discussion. And there are already lots of places of the internet where you can talk about Tolstoy, if you want to.

I'm trying to pick something that will catch lots of peoples interest, that hopefully won't disapoint them once they've read it (so they go on to read other selections), and will get them talking. I also want something reasonably "high profile", but that's also not going to be something a lot of people are going to read automatically - otherwise there's no point being in a book group.

I'd welcome any feedback, any thoughts?

 

[diaglo]

I'd welcome any feedback, any thoughts?

Marion Zimmer Bradley: although she is dead. there are works still being produced for her Avalon series. my wife just read the latest one finished/written by Diana Paxson.